From J. S. Burdon Sanderson 12 May [1874]1
The Brown Institution, | Wandsworth Road, S.W.
May 12
Dear Mr Darwin,
We have made comparative experiments as to the relative digestibility of fibrin & gluten, on the same plan as those we made before, of which I have written the results on the next page. They shew that gluten is much more difficult to digest than fibrin.2
I propose tomorrow to try after subjecting gluten to digestion, there is any remainder i.e—whether gluten contains any indigestible constituent, for it must I think be regarded as a mixed substance
Dr Klein3 will tell you what he has observed in the bones we have digested
Very truly yours | J B Sanderson
Two comparative experiments were made with the same digestive liquid, one with fibrin the other with gluten, each lasting four hours as in the previous series.
The digestive liquid contained 8.8 of pepsin-extract & 6.4 of hydrochloric acid in 1000 C.C. of water. The quantities digested in each case were
Fibrin | — | 0.2815 |
Gluten | — | 0.1150 |
Hence the quantity of gluten digested was to that of fibrin as 40.8 to 100.4
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Insectivorous plants. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1875.
Summary
Reports results of experiments comparing digestibility of gluten and fibrin for CD’s work on Drosera.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9456
- From
- John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Brown Institution
- Source of text
- DAR 58.1: 51–2
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9456,” accessed on 5 June 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9456.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22